San Miguel Corp. has obtained an original proponent status from the government to build a P700-billion new international airport in the north of Manila.
“A formal proposal was submitted to us and we have gone over the proposal, the completeness of the proposal and by end of last week, we have forwarded the proposal to Neda [National Economic and Development Authority] for final evaluation,” Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said during an aviation forum in Makati.
Tugade said the agency granted original proponent status to San Miguel to construct an airport with at least four runways and covering 2,000 hectares in Bulacan towns near Manila Bay.
He described the proposed international airport by San Miguel as “viable.”
Tugade added the government was still awaiting the proposal of All-Asia Resources and Reclamation Corp., a consortium led by retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr. and the Tieng family to build a new international airport in Sangley Point, Cavite.
“We are made to understand that there are certain private party ready and willing to invest in Sangley to make it into another international airport. I await their submission,” he said.
ARRC plans to reclaim 2,500 hectares at Sangley Point. The company expects to complete the reclamation in 12 months.
The new airport would be designed to have a capacity of 50 million to 100 million passengers for completion in five years.
“In other words, the approach is multiple airports. The condition for these new airports that are coming in, we told them, please respect the three conditionalities, which we would like to be recognized,” Tugade said.
“Number one, when you put those airports, be sure there is no government guarantees and assure us there would be no government subsidies and do not make it a matter of contractual commitment for us to transfer airplanes already moving in existing airports to transfer it to airports which you would like to put up,” he said.
Tugade also said Clark airport would be developed and the new terminals would be put in place.
“The new terminals will be put in place. We hope we can start construction at the earliest, by the end of this year and at the latest, by the first quarter of next year. And then, we try to develop and improve existing gateways,” he said.
State-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority is currently bidding out the development of a P12.55-billion new passenger terminal in Clark International Airport in Pampanga province.
The project aims to construct a new passenger terminal building and accommodate 8 million passengers per annum and build and install all required associated facilities, both landside and airside, to support the operations of the new terminal. The construction period is between 2017 and 2020.